Originally Posted by crpgnut
This is my take too, but not as long as Geralt is the protagonist. It's impossible to do open world when you don't even have the choice of main character. Also, the main thing that separates Bethesda with the competition is a moddable engine. I'm not sure CDPR has the skillset or desire to do this. Their game, by default, will be much less open than Bethesda's.

While I will tip my hat to the likelihood that TW3 will likely be a fledgling effort at a true open world game, I disagree that it's doomed simply because Geralt is required or that TES success is dependent on mods. In fact, most of the time, the only TES mods I'll download are those to explicitly fix Bethesda's foolhardy bugs and UI choices, not actual content overhauls. Given that so many people forego moddability with an XBox copy, I can't imagine myself being alone in this boat.